Bridget Williams

Bridget Rosamund Williams (born 1948) is a New Zealand publisher and founder of two independent publishing companies: Port Nicholson Press and Bridget Williams Books.

Early life and family Born in 1948, Williams was the daughter of Mary Williams (née Thorpe) and her husband mathematician and public servant Robin Williams. Williams attended Wellington Girls' College, and, in 1966, moved to Dunedin to study an arts degree in English literature at the University of Otago, where her father was appointed vice-chancellor the following year. In 1981 Williams left OUP to start her own independent company, Port Nicholson Press, which she founded with Roy Parsons and Lindsey Missen.

Four years later Williams sold the company to Allen & Unwin (Australia) and became managing director of Allen & Unwin (New Zealand).

In 1990 she founded Bridget Williams Books, Notable publications include The Book of New Zealand Women and the first general history of Māori, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History. In 2010, Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1820–1921 won the NZ Post Book of the Year Award.

From 1995 to 1998, Williams published under a joint imprint with Auckland University Press.

Williams has also been active in publishing events and organisations. She was a founding member of the Listener Women's Book Festival, and involved in both the Independent Publishers network and the Publishers' Association of New Zealand. and in the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to publishing.